Participation of Inhabitants Versus Security Politics: A comparative Analysis of Development Measures in the Vulnerable Districts in France and in Sweden

Abstract

My research project lies in the framework of the restructuring of the states sovereignty in Europe and attempts to analyse the consequences of a set of reforms implemented in social and urban policies. The methods developed through the Local Development Agreements in Sweden as well as the so-called City Policy in France (Politique de la ville) promote new territorial approaches in deprived areas. This new category of public action includes a strategic management, which is most of the time based on public and private partnerships and a coordination of plans in various fields such as housing, education, safety, health and economic development.

In my opinion, the development methods implemented in deprived areas have to be questioned. In general terms, the co-existence of a policy that emphasises safety and one that aim at the involvement of the inhabitants leads to a paradoxical situation in the definition and management of urban development projects. How can one in fact articulate two political directions where one has its object to control and the other to involve a population?

Keywords:

Description

The research project I propose here wants to question the aim and direction of European policies concerning disadvantaged urban districts. The basis is my eight years of professional experience in the crossroads of social, urban and territorial policies. I hope to demonstrate that working-class districts do not have access to an adequate form of intervention to meet, in particular, the expectations and needs of its inhabitants because of the overlapping of urban development projects and security politics. Squeezed in between a developmental logic reluctantly accepted by, rather than negotiated with, its inhabitants, and a security logic that leads to the confinement of residents in their areas, these disadvantaged urban districts often erupt into violence. Moreover, the public interventions do not enough consider the cultural codes of ethnic and religious communities and mostly do not offer prospects of life that are sufficiently stimulating for young people with immigrant backgrounds. The analysis of development measures and methods used in these districts is at the heart of the complex of problems in my research.

In particular, the research project aims to analyse the respective places accorded to the measures to increase the participations of the inhabitants on the one hand, and to improve for security and public peace in the context of integrated social and territorial policies on the other. It seems that today the preoccupation with making physical space secure is given precedence over aspirations to involve inhabitants in cooperative projects. In France, people in charge of urban development projects do not in general have at their disposal the necessary means for conceiving and implementing a thorough strategy of participation for inhabitants (absence of political support for consultation with inhabitants, lack of money for developing collective actions, etc.). The place of inhabitants in the decision-making process is thus limited to engaging only some dozens of inhabitants in districts that count several thousands. However, the concern with matters of security and public peace becomes more and more important in the definition of integrated urban development projects. In France it is not unusual that the opinions of professionals representing the ministry of the interior are sought on the security of the facilities, when planning an urban project. It is not unusual to consult the police authorities when making a social survey of a district. In plain language, it is less and less the opinions of the inhabitants that are requested as much as those of the security experts.

In my view the co-existence of these two directions leads to an ambiguous, if not paradoxical, situation in the definition and management of urban development projects. How can one in fact articulate two political directions where one has as its objects to control and the other to involve a population? Whom does one try to involve in these prioritised quarters and whom does one try to control? It seems as if two logics are implicitly opposed in the same space: the participation of the inhabitants in a decision making process inscribes itself in an open logic, while the security-obsessed political measures generate a logic of control, of making orderly, even imprisoning.

My thesis will analyse this problematic in two directions at least. First, I would like to get this paradox in perspective in different institutional organisations and functioning, such as those in Sweden and in France. Second, my research aims at testing these arguments with local actors according to a chain of accountability: politicians, technicians, consultants, architects, representatives of local associations, social workers and representatives of the inhabitants.

Publications

Didier Vanoni, Christophe Foultier and Julien Remy (2009). Les Attributions de Logements Sociaux, entre Règles et Pratiques, Revue Recherche sociale, N°189.

Christophe Foultier and Julien Remy (2007). Leading article, (p. 2-3); Evaluation Prospective de la Démarche d'Auto-réhabilitation Accompagnée dans le Réseau des Compagnons Bâtisseurs (p. 19-77), Revue Recherche sociale, N°183.

Christophe Foultier (2006), Leading article (p. 2-3); La Place des Personnes Âgées dans la Ville: les Nouveaux Enjeux des Politiques Urbaines et des Politiques de l'Habitat (p. 38-70), Revue Recherche sociale, N°177.

Other Academic Output

Paper "Social integration and housing politics in metropolitan areas", at the conference "The welfare state and the issue of migration in Europe", organized by Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue, University of Vienna, 10-11 octobre 2011.

Paper "Empowering the unpriviledged: self-renovation in disadvantaged areas", at Acsis Conference "Current Issues in European Cultural Studies", organized by Johanna Dahlin, Session 29 « This is Our Place! ? Reflexions on Place, Identity and Citizenship », 15-17 June.

Interventions in a course of lectures on urban studies, players and methods used in the field, 10 and 12 May 2011, Department of Migration et Society (URMIS), Paris Diderot University.

Intervention in the seminar on Delaktighet och medborgarinflytande, 17th February 2009, Mångkulturellt centrum, EUKN.

Intervention in the conference Attraktiva stadsdelar bryter segregation, 7 May 2010, Länsstyrelsen i Stockholms län, Regionplanekontoret.

Junior lecturer in urban sociology (2002-2006), Department of Geography, University of Cergy-Pontoise.